{"id":6186,"date":"2020-12-07T17:11:19","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T09:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.workstem.com\/?p=6186"},"modified":"2024-11-06T15:03:22","modified_gmt":"2024-11-06T07:03:22","slug":"can-employer-buy-out-rest-days-or-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.workstem.com\/hk\/en\/blog\/can-employer-buy-out-rest-days-or-holidays\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Employers Buy out Employees’ Holidays?"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the catering industry, retail industry, and clinic, working hours are based on the shifts. Almost all front-line employees are unlikely to have a fixed nine to six working hours or a five-day workweek as office workers do, or enjoy the statutory holidays or public holidays.<\/p>\n

However, there are always unwritten rules in these \u201clong working hours\u201d industries, for example, seven days a week, 10 hours a day, one-hour meal break. Some employers ask employees to work on rest days and statutory holidays without arranging other rest days for their employees. They only pay them one day\u2019s salary as compensation instead, which is commonly known as \u201cbuy-out\u201d.<\/p>\n

Maybe some employees don\u2019t care. If they have money, they can go to work without a rest day. However, as an employer, you can\u2019t follow an employee\u2019s \u201cOK\u201d. You must understand the labor law, even if you are questioned by employees in the future, you can also reply to them in a legal way.<\/p>\n

Definition of statutory holidays or public holidays under the Employment Ordinance<\/h2>\n

A rest day is defined as a continuous period of not less than 24 hours during which an employee is entitled to abstain from working for his employer. An employee employed under a continuous contract is entitled to not less than one rest day in every period of seven days.<\/p>\n

An employer may substitute some other rest day with the consent of the employee, in which case it must be within the same month before the original rest day or within 30 days after it.<\/p>\n

An employee, except young persons under the age of 18 employed in industrial undertakings, may work voluntarily on a rest day. However, whether a rest day is paid or not is to be agreed by employers and employees.<\/p>\n

STATUTORY HOLIDAYS An employee, irrespective of his length of service, is entitled to the following 13 statutory holidays :<\/p>\n